Extra Credit

Legislators tackle controversial CScope curriculum issues

  CScope, the school curriculum program maligned by many Texas parents, teachers and conservatives as anti-American and anti-Christian, is clearly in the crosshairs of State Sen. Dan Patrick, who is the new chair of the Senate Education Committee in the legislature. 

   He arranged a recent hearing with CScope representatives, and has further authorized a review panel, which is nonbinding but includes members of the State Board of Education as well as others. Patrick and Sen. Donna Coleman have also introduced a bill in the Senate to reform CScope.

   The Senate bill calls for opening all meetings concerning CScope to the public, turning over lessons for state board review, posting lessons on the CScope website for parents to view, and establishing a permanent oversight board.

     The current review committee's work is "to flush out any biases in there," said SBOE member Pat Hardy of Fort Worth, who is on the panel.

     Mavis Knight of Dallas, another SBOE member on the committee, said she will go in with an open mind.

     "I can'timagine that more than 800 school districts are using something that's not beneficial," she said. "I have to see the context in which the lessons are being presented."

    But Jeanine McGregor of Ballinger, a CScope critic who speaks to groups around the state about the curriculum, will be closely monitoring the committee's work.

     "If they are only looking to neutralize the sensationalism of it, rather than the legitimacy of the lesson itself," she said, "then they won't fix it."

__Shirley Jinkins

 

 

PBS' Independent Lens to spotlight Texas education board fight over textbooks

UPDATE

"The Revisionaries" documentary is available for viewing online at the PBS Video website through Feb. 27.

On KERA, here are showtimes to watch or record:

• Today: 10 p.m.
• Wednesday: 8 a.m., 2 p.m., 7 p.m.
• Thursday: 12 a.m., 2 a.m.
• Saturday: 11 a.m.

ORIGIONAL POST

The Texas board of education's rancorous debate over textbook standards will be the focus of a TV documentary on PBS this week. Check out the preview:

Watch Witness a Texas Showdown Over Teaching Standards on PBS. See more from Independent Lens.

 

In North Texas, KERA-13 has scheduled the episode of Independent Lens to first air at 10 p.m. on Tuesday night. (By the way, the state school board meets in Austin on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Here's the agenda).

A key player in The Revisionaries is former board president Don McLeroy, described as a "dentist, Sunday school teacher, and avowed young-earth creationist" and the 15-member state board's adoption of new science and history curriculum standards in 2010.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Bud Kennedy weighs in here.

The show's backers say that the state board's action is important because decisions about Texas textbooks have a nationwide effect.

"Texas is one of the nation's largest textbook markets because it is one of the few where the state decides what books schools can buy rather than leaving it up to local districts, which means publishers that get their books approved can count on millions of dollars in sales. Further, publishers craft their standard textbooks based on the requirements of the biggest buyers. As a result, the Texas board has the power to shape the textbooks that children around the country read for years to come," according to a post on the PBS website.

But the extent of Texas' influence on publishing has been the subject of debate. The executive director of the Association of American Publishers' school division, Jay Diskey, told the Star-Telegram that the idea that Texas standards will be forced on other states is "really an urban myth in the year 2010."

Former Star-Telegram reporter Traci Shurley wrote on March 20, 2010: "Over the past 15 years, he said, most states have asked or required publishers to align textbooks with their own state standards. Also, digital publishing has allowed the industry to customize books, not only by state but also by district."

Jessamy Brown

State approves new charter school for Deion Sanders group

The State Board of Education on Friday approved an application for a charter school project planned by former Dallas Cowboys cornerback Deion Sanders and Metroplex business leaders.

The Prime Prep Academy is to open for the 2012-2013 school year with students in kindergarten through grade six and eventually expand to grade 12, officials have said.

The board approved eight new open enrollment charter schools at a meeting in Austin on Friday.

Sanders is working with Uplift Fort Worth, a Dallas-Fort Worth group, to launch the school.

Jessamy Brown

 

Texas' State Board of Education set to adopt social studies curriculum next week

The controversial debate over what is taught in the state's social studies classrooms will continue next week at the State Board of Education prepares to make final adoptions to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.

Friday state officials issued a release that includes these amendments board member Don McLeroy, of College Station who recently lost his bid for reelection, hopes to get approved. They include having students:

*contrast the Founding Father's intent for the wording of the First Amendment with the phrase "separation of church and state."

*discuss alternatives regarding long term entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare, given the decreasing worker to retiree ratio.

*contrast the tone of muckrakers and reform leaders such as Upton Sinclair, Susan B. Anthony, Ida B. Wells and W. E. B. DuBois on American society versus "the optimism of immigrants including Jean Pierre Godet as told in Thomas Kinkade’s The Spirit of America."

The adoption process has gotten national attention as preliminary action included taking Thomas Jefferson out of a world history section and replacing references to capitalism with free enterprise. Critics have accused the conservative Republicans on the board, including McLeroy, of trying to inject their political beliefs into the curriculum, such as requiring teachers to cover the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation's Founding Fathers, but not highlight the philosophical rationale for the separation of church and state. One Hispanic board member walked out of a March meeting claiming some members were trying to "whitewash" the curriculum by excluding some minorities from history lessons.

This week the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas issued a report critical of the SBOEand called for the Legislature to check the SBOE's “systemic abuse” of power by limiting its ability to insert personal ideologies into curriculum.

The proposed standards can be reviewed here. Webcasts of the meeting, which begin Tuesday, will be posted here.

-Eva-Marie Ayala

Texas social studies curriculum changes online

Politicians, pundits, educators and even comedians have been talking about them for weeks. Now, you can see the Texas State Board of Education's changes to social studies curriculum in black and white by going here.

The Texas Education Agency just posted Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills curriculum standards that were given first approval at the 15-member panel's March meeting. A final vote is set for May.

A public comment period starts Friday. Comments can be sent to rules@tea.state.tx.us.

Many have feared that changes to the standards pushed by conservative members of the board - like taking Thomas Jefferson from one section on revolutionary thinkers - would make their way into textbooks across the nation because Texas is such a big publishing customer. A publishing company trade group has said that in an age of electronic publishing, Texas no longer has such sweeping influence.

- Traci Shurley  

State board issues clarification on Jefferson

The Texas State Board of Education has been getting a lot of press this week for their controversial revisions of social studies curriculum standards. Today, they decided to make some things clear on the subject of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson.

You can read the statement here. It acknowledges that the board removed Jefferson from a list Enlightenment thinkers. But, basically says, don't worry students in Texas are still going to study him plenty - in fifth-grade, eighth-grade and then in U.S. Government in high school.

But their explanation wasn't sitting well with the Texas Freedom Network, a group that bills itself as a mainstream voice to counter the religious right.

They quickly put out a press release in which their president Kathy Miller said: 

"This isn’t a contest to see how many times someone is included in the standards. The issue here is why the board would not want students to learn that people struggling for freedom around the world have looked for more than two centuries to Thomas Jefferson and his ideals for inspiration. This is yet another example of board members making decisions about things they clearly don’t know anything about instead of listening to teachers and scholars who do."

- Traci Shurley

 

State board member: government can stifle innovation

Ken Mercer, a member of the conservative block of State Board of Education, wants students to know about both the good and the bad that government can offer, he said Thursday.

So, he introduced an amendment to state social studies curriculum standards that said: "understand how government taxation and regulations can serve as restriction to private enterprise."

He said the students need to know that over-regulation and over-taxation can inhibit innovation and stifle industry.

His fellow member, Terri Leo, agreed. She said it's especially important today, with issues like cap and trade and ."policies that are based on supposed global warming theories."

The amendment passed.

- Traci Shurley

Fox clarifies after TEA clarification

The Texas Education Agency issued a press release Wednesday trying to clear up what it called inaccuracies in comments made during Fox & Friends on the Fox Network.

On Thursday, the show's co-host Steve Doocy answered back. Here, from Fox, is what he said:

“I just want to clarify some stuff, a couple of points. First off all, they were upset that what we said that what they are doing down in Texas is they are developing standards for new textbooks. Technically, what they are doing, is they are developing curriculum standards that will set what is taught in classes, and then those standards will become part of a framework that textbooks are based on. We were just trying to make it simpler…Also, we talked about a suggestion that was made that history is, American history starts in the year 1877. That was a suggestion, made first of all, in North Carolina, and we thought we were pretty clear that these were just suggestions, and there have been a lot of suggestions, regarding the founding fathers, and some different dates that may or may not be included in the text. We thought we were clear that they were simply suggestions, so we want to make sure you understand, they were just suggestions, and that is our clarification.”

- Traci Shurley

Legislators call for Judeo-Christian heritage to stay in curriculum standards

Testimony at the State Board of Education meeting has begun in Austin on proposed changes to the Texes Essential Knowledge and Skills for social studies. First up was Texas Rep. Wayne Christian.

He presented a letter from the Texas Conservative Coalition of the Texas House of Representatives. It encouraged the board to retain references to the Judeo-Christian heritage of the state and nation, keep references to "American expansionism" and historical figures like Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison.

"We fear that State Board members have been pressured throughout the TEKS revision process to wash the TEKS clean of any references to the Judeo-Christian faiths while promoting references to other religions," the letter said. It later continued: "Our nation was founded by Judeo-Christian leaders, and our founding documents reflect Judeo-Christian values. The TEKS for history and social studies, therefore, must neither trivialize nor censor historical import of Judeo-Christian faiths."

- Traci Shurley   

State board gets rolling on social studies, clarifies reported 'inaccuracies'

Texas State Board of Education members are getting back to work on social studies curriculum standards today In a room filled with people and television cameras. 

More than 50 people have signed up to speak to the 15-member board. A group of young people with bright yellow t-shirts that read "Save Our History" were also scattered throughout the boardroom.

With the story taking on so much national attention, the Texas Education Agency also put out a statement Wednesday to clarify some "inaccuracies" the agency said have been repeatedly broadcast on the Fox Network.

Here are some links to what's been done so far.

- Traci Shurley